Incarceration serves to remove offenders from a community, but also creates hardships on families, including the loss of an income or a caregiver, in addition to long-term effects on mental health for all involved. After incarceration, people often encounter challenges in obtaining meaningful employment, leading to reductions in long-term productivity, recidivism and widespread effects on a community's social, health and educational systems. Disparities in this rate by race or ethnicity can highlight structural differences in how communities are affected and treated by the public safety and criminal justice system.

In 2015, the latest year for which data is available, African Americans in Lancaster were incarcerated at a rate of 141 persons per 10,000 residents more than seven and a half times of the 18 per 10,000 rate of white residents. Latinos, at 63 per 10,000 residents, were incarcerated at nearly three and a half times the rate of white residents. This is greater than the overall rates for Pennsylvania, where African Americans are incarcerated at more than five and a half times the rate of whites and Latinos at 2.7 times the rate of whites.

While such disparities are repeated in all surrounding counties, all of them have lesser disparities than Lancaster, with the exception of Chester, where at 176 per 10,000 residents for African Americans and 15 per 10,000 for whites, African American residents are incarcerated at almost eleven and a half times the rate of white residents.

Lebanon and York have higher incarceration rates for all races than nearby counties, including Lancaster. In Lebanon, 321 African Americans, 74 Latinos and 50 whites per 10,000 are incarcerated, and in York, 346 African Americans, 143 Latinos and 57 whites per 10,000 are incarcerated

Disparities in incarceration are the result of racialized stereotypes, policies and practices and community conditions. Stereotypes that portray Black and Latino people, especially males, as inherently dangerous, criminal, and violent lay the foundation for police surveillance and disparate and harsher treatment by the criminal justice system. Communities of color are more likely to be under surveillance and policies such as stop and frisk perpetuate increased police contact. Punitive drug laws have had disproportionate impact on Black and Latino communities. Even though Blacks and whites have similar rates of drug use, Black people are more likely to be arrested and experience harsher sentences. In general, whites experience less harsh sentences when convicted of similar crimes as Black and Latinos. Given economic disparities, people of color are less likely to experience pre-trial release after arrest. The concentration of Black and Latino communities in highly segregated communities with limited economic opportunities and ineffective schools may also foster crime involvement.

Rates are for people in local jails at the county level and in prisons and county jails at the state level. Rates for subgroups at the state level only include the county jail population, not state prisons. National data reported here is missing five states that did not report.